His radio had fallen off his tactical vest during the explosion, and he fumbled around on the ground for it.
“Hudson…Genevieve…come in,” he called, trying to stay calm as he realized he’d started liking the two newest members of the STAT team way more than he’d thought he would. “Are you guys okay? Where are you?”
There was no answer for an agonizingly long time. Brielle, Julian, and Kiara all moved closer, their faces full of worry. Then a burst of static came through his earpiece, followed by Hudson’s rough voice.
“We’re okay. But there’s no way we can get through that debris,” he said, the words difficult to make out even with Caleb’s keen hearing. “The best we can do is try to backtrack and find another way to reach you. But that’s going to take time and means we’ll have to leave the two injured agents behind. They probably won’t make it if we do that. They’re in really bad shape.”
Caleb glanced at Brielle, who was already shaking her head.
“Forget it then,” he told Hudson. “Get the hell out of these tunnels and find some help for them first, then come for us. This whole thing will probably be over by then, though. One way or another.”
Hudson and Genevieve didn’t even try to argue this time. They simply wished Caleb and Brielle good luck, and then they were off.
Caleb checked over Brielle one more time to make sure she was unharmed, reloaded his weapon, and gave Julian and Kiara a nod, then they were all moving again, with him taking point. Catching sight of the blood droplets on the floor from the Vandal who’d been injured, he followed the red trail, hoping it led somewhere good.
“We’ve taken out two more nukes,” Jake announced over the radio a few moments later, his voice nearly drowned out by the shouts and gunfire on that end. “But it’s taking us too long. There are still fourteen left, and Harrington’s people have already collapsed too many of the tunnels. If any of you are already blocked off by the debris from going any farther, head for the exits—now. There’s nothing you can do anyway, and it’s stupid for all of us to die down here for nothing.”
Caleb glanced over his shoulder at Brielle as he ran, desperately wanting to tell her to leave as well. But he knew she wouldn’t listen. She wouldn’t leave him any more than he would ever leave her. That knowledge filled a hole in his soul he hadn’t known was there. For the first time in his life, he had someone who would stay with him through it all. And the worst part was that he was going to lose her anyway. That thought hurt so effing much he wanted to scream.
He hadn’t realized how fast he and Brielle were running until he saw that Julian and Kiara were far behind and losing ground quickly. Borrowing the Vandal’s abilities had nearly made Brielle a match for his werewolf speed.
“Keep going,” Kiara yelled, waving them on. “We’ll catch up when we can.”
If it wasn’t for the nukes waiting somewhere ahead of them, Caleb would never have left the couple, but there was no time to slow down. So he simply ran faster, Brielle staying right there with him.
Time started to blur, but they were both running at full speed when they came into a large open area, the first they’d found in the entire complex. The room was more brightly lit than the rest of the tunnels they’d been in, with dozens of lights attached to the walls and ceiling overpowering even the red glow of the flashing alarms and emergency lighting.
Looking around, he decided it was almost like being in the middle of a wagon wheel, with the central atrium they were standing in acting as the hub of the wheel, and the spokes heading off in at least twenty-five or thirty different directions. Thick, heavy cables ran along the walls and ceilings of many of those tunnels, weaving back and forth across each other in a mad pattern as they converged in the middle of the open area where he and Brielle stood. Here and there, cables ran in and out of large metal boxes. They must have something to do with setting the nukes off. Or maybe harnessing their power for the lasers.
But while all the cables and control boxes were interesting, it was the rather harmless-looking metal cylinder positioned in the exact center of the room that grabbed Caleb’s attention. About four feet long, a little more than a foot in diameter, and practically buried under the mess of wires and cables running in and around it, the stainless tube didn’t look like much. Definitely not anywhere as dangerous as the warhead from a nuclear weapon should. But that was what it was.
Glancing at the branching tunnels leading off the central hub of the wagon wheel, Caleb realized it wouldn’t be very difficult to figure out where the nukes were. All they had to do was follow the cables. And that was what they’d do—as soon as they disarmed this one.
“Brielle and I found one of the nukes,” Caleb said into the radio. “And I’m pretty sure the others are nearby.”
“Roger that. But hurry,” Jake said, his voice almost lost in the static filling the connection and the alarms still ringing throughout the tunnels. “Misty figures we barely have more than seven minutes left.”
Shit.
He and Brielle had just started across the rough rock floor when eight people came into the room from one of the tunnels directly across from them. For half a second, Caleb saw the black tactical gear they wore and thought it was his teammates. Hell, he would have even been happy if it had been some of the agents and cops from McKay’s backup team.
But then Caleb saw Xavier Harrington and Uriel Cerano and his whole body tightened, his inner wolf letting out a snarl. He drew his weapon, his claws and fangs extending at the same time. While he’d been stunned Uriel and his fellow Vandals were down here with the nukes, he’d never dreamed Harrington would be as well. Caleb guessed the psychopath was more committed to this new world he wanted to create than anyone had realized.
Or maybe he was simply a frigging whack job.
“What is it about you that makes it so difficult to know where you’re going to show up?” Harrington asked, eyeing Caleb curiously as Uriel and the other members of his supernatural security force drew weapons and began to spread out to surround him and Brielle. “Sometimes I can read you clear as day, but other times, it’s like you don’t have a clue what you’re going to do until you’ve already done it.”
Caleb snorted. Unknowingly or not, Harrington had described Caleb’s muddled journey through life. He had never known what path he would walk down until he was already on it, for better or for worse. Mostly worse, he supposed. Not that he was going to throw any praise the man’s way for his exceptional guess.
“Maybe you’re simply not as good at this seeing the future crap as you think.” Caleb goaded. “In fact, you suck so bad at it that I’d drop this whole insane scheme if I were you.”
“But you aren’t me,” Harrington said. “You haven’t seen what I’ve seen. You’ve never been burdened with the knowledge of where humanity’s ignorance will lead us and watched as the world burned in endless nuclear fires as every living soul on the planet is snuffed out in an instant.”